[Foundation-l] Board resolutions on controversial content and images of identifiable people

[Risker]

On 1 June 2011 16:17, phoebe ayers <phoebe.wiki at gmail.com> wrote:

> This week, the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees unanimously
> passed a resolution addressing the issue of controversial content on
> the projects. The Board also unanimously passed a resolution
> addressing images of identifiable, living people on the projects. The
> resolutions are posted at:
> http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Resolution:Controversial_content
>
> http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Resolution:Images_of_identifiable_people
>
>
I think the more important part of this announcement is the resolution on
images of identifiable people, and it is this section that requires
considerably more self-examination on the part of every project that hosts
or uses images.

Commons has a guideline on the subject, found here:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Photographs_of_identifiable_people


This is a starting point for the discussion.  In particular, I think that
the Board in its resolution is looking specifically at the uploading of
images by third party editors/users who are not the subject of the image,
nor its creator, nor the person who has claimed the right to it. (The most
obvious example is images from Flickr, but there are many other "resource"
sites.) This, of course, does not exempt users who upload images that they
create or own. The resolution and (where applicable) guidelines do place an
important onus on both the uploader and the project to ensure that
personality rights have been appropriately confirmed. The resolution places
this obligation on a near-equal footing to ensuring that copyright status is
appropriate to the project.

It may also be worth noting that the term "identifiable" is used. Unusual
physical structures, jewelry, tattoos or other features may render the
subject of an image identifiable even if the facial features are not
included in the image.

It should probably be emphasized that this would apply equally to projects
that host "fair use" or other images, and is not simply an expectation on
Commons.

Risker/Anne